Laundry Day

There is something refreshing about laundry day. It's not that I like the chore aspect of it, I just like having lots of options. Sometimes when all of my clothes are freshly laundered I feel like I just went on a shopping spree. This time it was the colors of my tank tops all hung together that caught my eye. It was so pretty that I stopped what I was doing to get my camera.

Spring Sneak Peek

In the last day or so everytime I glance at a weather report it seems as though it is all news about the extreme snow blizzards, wind and cold happening in the midwest and on the east coast. For the last day or so we in western WA have been lucky enough to have a break from our usual winter rain and have had some pretty nice weather.

I think this tends to happen in January on the west coast. As far back as college I have memories of it being very pretty for a week or two during the month of January. In college I lived in San Luis Obispo, which is about a 15 minute drive from Pismo Beach and Avila Beach. I remember right after the winter quarter had begun I would sometimes head to the beach in January to do homework and study while sitting in the sun and enjoying the sand and sound of waves. I would even wear shorts and flip flops with a light hooded sweatshirt. Washington hasn't quite had the warmer temperatures, but it has had the sunshine. I have to remind myself on these sunny winter days to enjoy and appreciate being able to go outside. In the last few years we seem to have hit a pattern of spending a few scattered days outside in the winter when it gets pretty like this. Usually the days are spent on some kind of outside project. I always find these work days to be so refreshing. I know that there is still several more months of grey overcast skies and seemingly non-stop rain, but getting outside on the sunny days makes it more manageable. The husband and I took advantage of just such a day yesterday by spending a good chunk of time on a few outside projects. One such project was to start laying a new pathway from our driveway to Bambino's kennel. We already had the flagstones and the gravel is pretty inexpensive if bought by the yard (or half yard in this case). This area can get kind of soggy at times, so a path will be nice for keeping our shoes dry and mud free. Eventually grass will grow up through the gravel between the flagstones.Another item I was able to cross off the never ending to-do list was clearing the dead plant stocks and vines from the flower bed on the side of our house. This area is beautiful once spring hits, lots of blooms. The cosmos I planted a few years ago are actually just starting to peak out of the ground. I love those first little bits of spring!

The last project that I thought I'd tell you about was one that was entirely done by the husband. My only part in removing a large and deeply rooted stump in our vegetable garden was standing by for a bit and snapping some pictures. It was actually pretty amazing to watch him use the excavator on his tractor to dig this thing out of the ground. It was in the area near where our chickens were until just recently. I say this because another project we accomplished yesterday was moving our poultry to a new and improved area of their own in the garden. I plan to share more about this in a day or so...it deserves a post of it's own.

Well, whether it's freezing where you're at or if you're lucky enough to be getting a little bit of nice(ish) weather, I do hope your week is ending well!

School Day

Yesterday I found myself back in a "brick and mortar" school classroom for the first time since last June when my former job ended. I spent the day substitute teaching for a middle school Social Studies teacher. I got the job at the very last second, probably because the teacher woke up ill, the call actually woke me from a dead sleep at about 6:30 am. It didn't help that the night before the husband and I had stayed up until about 12:30 am talking about all of life's rewards and challenges...luckily he got up with me and helped me gather a few things as I was rushing to get ready. I only had about 50 minutes to get dressed and get to the school on time.

So, I really didn't spend much time thinking about what the experience of being back in a classroom would be like for me until I was driving home at the end of the day. I realized that if I'd had more time to anticipate going back into a school I would have probably been more anxious. Schools always feel familiar to me, even if I've never been to a particular school before, it is a familiar environment. But since I went through so much with my last job ending and now teaching online, I wasn't sure if it would feel strange or sad or whatever to be in a classroom again. But I think stepping back into that world as a substitute was good for me, it's a pretty low commitment situation, typically one day and that's it. There's no extra work with grading, no follow up with struggling students. You get to show up, fill a role for a bit, and leave. You don't even have to go to faculty meetings or make yourself available before and after school for students that need help. I also realized that I don't miss school bells. So much of the day in a typical school is spent hurrying to get somewhere or finish something before a bell, or anticipating the bell that will tell you when the next thing happens. School bells do not leave much room for organic timing...I'm glad I no longer have to spend my days being managed by a bell. My day of subbing made me appreciate my current job even more. I love my freedom. I love it that I don't typically have to rush through my mornings. I love it that there is time for me to go grocery shopping if I so chose. I love it that I have been able to devote myself to some regular exercise and get back on a path to being in shape (Zumba classes as well as doing cardio on our home ellyptical have helped me lose a bit of weight in the last two months!) I am going to be continuing to substitute teach as jobs come up, and I'm not dreading it at all, I think it will be an interesting use of my time and the money will help us stay on target budget-wise. I also think that being in and out of classrooms as a substitute will be a great regular reminder to appreciate my online teaching job even more! And that, boys and girls, is a lesson I had to go to school to learn!

Resolution: Cloth Napkins

I've mentioned one of my New Year's resolutions a couple of times recently...so here it is. I'm going to make this the year that we stop using paper napkins and switch instead exclusively to cloth. My goal with this resolution is to try to consume just a little less, kind of a small gesture to the environment.Last week I specifically purchased a few different fabrics with this project in mind. The first one I cut into was this adorable navy print with white bicycles. I used a cloth napkin I bought a few years ago at Crate and Barrel as a pattern. It measured a little over 18 inches square. I cut my squares to have 20" side lengths, then folded the edges over twice and sewed them. Their size when finished was about 18.5" on each side.

Although I cut four napkins, I have only finished two so far. To keep from getting sick of my resolution too quickly I decided that I'm going to work on my new napkins a bit at a time. There will be time to make many more, in all different fabrics. My idea is to have different sets that I can switch out based on the month or season, I think that will make it more fun for me.

I also decided to make a couple of napkin rings...that way we can use our napkins for more than one meal and easily keep track of which one belongs to each of us.

So obviously because two napkins aren't going to last us an entire year, there will be more napkins being sewn up...and I will share as I progress.

We regularly have undersized loads of kitchen towels going through our washer and dryer, so washing these napkins will just mean making those loads a bit more full, really using hardly any more energy than we are already using. The best part about this project is knowing that we will be wasting just a little less.

Cork Wreath

A while back I saw a blog post on LollyChops that caught my attention. Lovely Lolly had written a tutorial about making a wine cork wreath. I've been saving my corks for several years now and I've also been collecting corks from a local winery for the last year or so. I just wasn't sure for a while what exactly I wanted to use them to make, along with the cork wreath, I've seen people use corks to make very cool looking bulletin/cork boards and also coasters and trivets. Well, I now have the best bulletin board I could ever imagine hanging in my office (I plan to share about that soon!) and considering I had over 200 corks saved up, I decided against the coasters and trivets for now, I wanted to make something that would use up all of my corks, not just a few. A wreath just like Lolly's was the right solution. So I made a trip to Michael's craft store for a straw wreath, fired up my glue gun, and got to work. I had the idea at first that I'd put the wreath on our front door, I was thinking it would look nice there once the Christmas themed wreath I hung had been taken down and stored. But, I was also a bit concerned about how the corks would hold up being exposed to the elements. It took me a while to save up and collect all of those corks, I didn't want them to be destroyed after just a couple of years outside. Which is how I ended up with the idea of hanging the wreath in our dining room window. We have a set of gorgeous picture windows on one wall. I hung a Christmas wreath in the center window which is the largest, over the holidays, and I liked how it looked. Besides there are a few other "wine themed" items in the dining room already. One is the tray below which is made out of the lid of a wine barrel. I bought it at a winery in Livermore, CA, Murrieta's Well, where I used to work. (I poured wine in their tasting room, it was a very fun job and I miss it very much!)

Another fun piece we have in the dining room is the candelabra pictured below which is made from a barrel stave, also purchased at the winery where I used to work. It was actually a gift that I gave the husband for the first Christmas we spent together, before we were even married. I remember thinking that if my hunch about him was right that I'd get to enjoy the candelabra for a long time, I was right!And below is a picture of the wreath hung in our dining room window, in context with everything else in the room...by the way, I hate our dining room table, it was the husband's before we were married, it serves it's purpose, but I don't even remotely like the style. I dream of an 8 foot table with a granite or marble top on top of turned cherry wood legs and 8 cherry wood chairs...all in good time though, anticipation is good. We've actually looked pretty seriously in the past, and we've even come close to buying a couple of different tables, but there's always been a good reason to wait for something better. Our idea is to find a table with a good strong base and then buy a piece of stone (marble or granite) to mount on the table base. It will happen when it is supposed to. But, table dreams aside, I love the way the wreath looks in the dining room window. Not every cork tells a story or represents a special memory, but many of them do.So back to the actual crafting of the wreath, Lolly's tutorial is pretty darn complete, so if you're interested in the steps required to make a cork wreath I would refer you to her lovely blog (there's lots of good stuff there, check out the cork wreath tutorial, but also spend sometime looking at all of her other amazing ideas and free downloads!) Instead, I will share some pictures I took as I worked to show the process. I will mention that I didn't look back at her tutorial until after I had already bought my wreath, so while Lolly recommends using a 10" wreath, the one I bought was 18". In the end, it still ended up looking pretty full (I wasn't kidding that I had a ton of corks saved up!), but I decided that I will continue to add to it over time. I actually am pretty excited about that idea, now when we open a bottle to celebrate, or even just to enjoy with dinner, I will be able to put it on my "work in progress" wreath right away.

I love my new wreath, it's the perfect combination of wine-themed-repurposed-craftiness for me...a little later this week I hope to share with you my progress with one of my other recent projects/resolutions. It's raining like crazy here in WA, so lately there's lots of time for me to spend getting back into the swing of things with work, organizing and cleaning things around the house, and getting my crafting and sewing fix. Have a fantastic Monday!

My New(ish) Jewelry Holder

I wanted to share about a project I completed yesterday, New Year's Day. It started with the purchase of one of those Sonicare toothbrushes...I decided to clean and reorganize the area around my bathroom sink to make room for my amazing new toothbrush. Sometimes it just takes a new purchase to make me want to organize other things...you know like a new pair of shoes makes me reorganize all of my current pairs, or a new CD makes me want to reorganize my whole collection. This time it was my jewelry. I have been frustrated for a long time about the organization of my jewelry, especially my necklaces. So I got the idea to make an organizer out of a frame and a piece of burlap (I have tons of it!)

So I got started on the project with a trip to a fantastic hardware store in Bellingham.This hardware store is a fantastic place. It isn't one of those big chains, it's the real deal, old school. It is two stories packed with narrow aisles that go to the ceiling, all filled with every kind of imaginable tool, hardware, and gadget you could think of. It is a huge place, easy to get lost in.

I picked up S-hooks, figuring they would fit nicely into the loose weave of the burlap and allow a way to hang up individual necklaces, bracelets, and rings.

See what I mean...this hardware store is packed floor to ceiling and then some!

The next step in this project was to find a frame. I found a couple right away at a well known thriftstore chain, but I couldn't believe that they were priced for $10. I couldn't justify buying a used frame from a thrift store for that much. Then I stumbled upon the frame above at a smaller thriftstore for only $1, much better. It didn't have any kind of backing, but that was fine since I wanted an open back anyway.

The next two steps were to paint the frame and then hot glue a piece cut-to-fit of burlap to the inside of the frame. The painting was done over a couple of days. I used an oil based spray paint.

Then with the husband's help I hung it in our master bathroom above my hand-towl bar. The last step was the most fun, finally getting to see my jewelry hung nicely. I'd like to think that now that I have everything organized and at easy reach, I'll now be more likely to wear my jewelry.

Welcome 2010!

For not really having any plans initially, the husband and I managed to have quite a good time last night for New Year's Eve. We went to a Brazilian restaurant, Impanema's, in Seattle for dinner. The food was fantastic, basically it's a great salad bar, with the delicious Brazilian black beans I love so much, and tons of different kinds of meats that are brought to your table on skewers. We basically feasted, it was a fantastic final meal for 2009. There were even Carnival dancers there, I love the feathered headresses...very fun!After a short stop at a classy bar owned by a friend of the husband, we ended up at our neighbor's place for the countdown, complete with champagne.

Today's tasks will be taking down Christmas decorations, starting a body cleanse as part of my continued resolution to get healthy and fit, and getting started on a project that involves another New Year resolution I made (I will share more about this later). All in all a good start to a new decade.

Welcome 2010! I'm glad to have you here!